Tony John, Port Harcourt
Factional governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has denied the allegations in some quarters linking him and two others with the mayhem that occurred last Saturday during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Akuku Toru Local Government Area of the state.
Also, Cole has accused the council chairman of masterminding the violence, which claimed more than 10 lives and destroyed property worth millions of naira.
He made the allegation yesterday, insisting that a strict mandate was given to the council chairman to ensure APC did not score a vote.
Cole said: “Over the past few days, Rivers State has once again been in the headlines globally for all the wrong reasons. In a nationwide election that sought to elect a president for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and members of the National Assembly, our dear state was characterised by armed conflict, which unfortunately led to the death of innocent Nigerians who had simply sought to exercise their civic duty of participating in an electoral process.”
He expressed his condolences to families that lost loved ones last weekend, particularly the family of Miss Ibisaki Amachree, an ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who was shot on duty.
“Her death is one too many, and no one has the right to kill in the name of power and politics. It has been my personal plea and mantra, as well as that of the APC, that the violence meted out on our members and citizens of the state in 2015 and immediately thereafter has no place in any modern society, especially one that desperately needs to grow economically and develop for the betterment of her people.
“I have been shocked and saddened by statements and comments that Prof. Charles Dokubo-Quakers, Prince Tonye Princewill and I were responsible for the carnage and deaths in Abonnema last weekend. These malicious and unfounded allegations are being investigated and our lawyers will advise on possible libel suits to take against those who have peddled these wicked falsehoods.
“In Akuku Toru in particular, Rowland Sekibo, currently at large, is the chairman of the LGA and, under his watch, Abonnema was brazenly under the control of several deadly cult groups. Like in several LGAs across the state … and in the run-up to this election, intelligence reaching us was that strict directives had been issued to the chairman not to permit APC from delivering the local government of its governorship candidate and, in particular, his polling unit and ward,” Cole said.